The seeds have lain 30,000 years in the permafrost, managed to sprout

group of Russian biologists led David Gilichinsky from the Institute of Physical-Chemical and Biological Problems in Soil Puschino successfully thawed Siberian plant seeds found under 38 feet of permafrost near the banks of the River Kolyma in the Magadan region. According to scientists, they came back about 30 thousand years ago.

As you know, vegetation similar elements carry much more information than even the most detailed fossils. There is a chance that the DNA fragments can restore the flora of the Ice Age.

The area where the seeds were found, well known for its deposits of frozen plants growing in the north-eastern part of Siberia in the late Pleistocene - about 40-25 thousand years ago. Most of them were found in the frozen nests of rodents, who used the stems of plants everything for the home.

Gilichinsky and his colleagues sifted through a lot of well-known and newly discovered samples of sediments in search of seeds narrow-leaved campion (Silene stenophylla Ledeb). This diminutive perennial shrub grows in the harsh climatic conditions in Yakutia and has an extremely high resistance to freezing and defrosting. In one such sample of sediment Duva Yar biologists found several immature seeds campion, preserved in almost perfect condition. Radiocarbon analysis showed that the age of discovery Gilichinsky and his colleagues is about 30 thousand years. Scientists have cut the most viable fragments from these seeds and put them in a special nutrient medium that simulates the growing plant. After some time, the seed particles are turned into high-grade shoots campion. Biologists transplanted them into the ground and tried to get the normal seeds, crossed the ancient bushes campion with each other and with its modern "family».

Thus, the Russian biologists for the first time been able to "resurrect" a flowering plant, the fruits of which lay tens of thousands of years in permafrost conditions.

Source: www.gazeta.ru

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